UNREST Reviews/Quotes
Unrest Review Quotes:
“Riveting...equal parts medical mystery, science lesson, political advocacy primer and even a love story” -San Francisco Chronicle
“Remarkably intimate, deeply edifying and a stirring call to action.” -Los Angeles Times
“A vital, emotionally moving call to action and empathy” -Toronto Film Scene
“An existential exploration on the meaning of life” -LA Times
“A sensitive and arresting rally cry” - LA Times
“Unrest is moving, beautiful, educational, heartbreaking.” -@Lilasays on Twitter (Lila)
“We may be bound to our bedrooms, but we refuse to disappear.” -@MEFoggyDog (MEFoggyDog)
Unrest Poster Quotes:
1/ "Jen, you've taken something that happened to you and turned it into a movement that has impacted thousands if not millions of lives. Thank you for your passion, your intellect, your dedication, and your inner fire -- all things no illness could ever extinguish. On behalf of patients all around the world, for the incredible work you've done and continue to do, thank you." Love, Courtney
2/ "Something about seeing people like me in a film makes it more real, gives me validation I didn't even know I needed. I look forward to the day when I tell somebody I have ME and they reply, "I think I saw a documentary about that!" -Heidi Hayward, Facebook
3/ "Wonderfully honest, vulnerable, eloquent portrayal" -Keri Putnam, Sundance Institute
4/ "An emotional look at human strength" -Kaitlyn Booth, Bleeding Cool
5/ "Just saw Unrest at SXSW. I'm incredibly moved, what an incredible film and journey. Keep strong, keep fighting. we see you."
Jamee Rbs on Twitter @jameerbs
6/ "My precious older brother has ME. I sobbed throughout @unrestfilm today at #SXSW and am so grateful to @jenbrea for doing this. Looking forward to getting involved in helping raise awareness of the #millionsmissing including Justus, who'd be a doctor by now" -Merci Victoria Grace on Twitter @merci
7/ I just saw @unrestfilm at #sxsw. I offer my support and solidarity to #pwme. I see you and stand with you.
"I just saw Unrest Film at SXSW. I offer my support and solidarity to #pwme. I see you and stand with you."
@emmerschmidt Amy Emmerich on Twitter
8/ "Just saw #unrestfilm at #SXSW and am blown away by the courage of those with ME/CFS."
Carla Cheathem on Twitter @CarlaCheathem
9/ "We will never forget the European premiere night of Unrest. Your film is a tribute to all the brave patients out there, their loved ones taking care of them and the doctors working to find solutions!"
-Millions Missing Denmark
10/ "Thank you so much to everyone involved for creating such an honest, personal, deeply moving and inspirational account of life with ME.
I have absolutely no doubt this film will make an enormous impact. There's a huge network of allies waiting to receive this film with open arms and spread the word far and wide."
Emily Goddard, Facebook
11/ "A revelation and a call to action." -Salt Lake City Tribune
12/ "A high grade example of the form" -Variety
13/ "UNREST is so SO important. I laughed + cried + was inspired + angered + encouraged. To Jen and Omar THANK YOU. I think this film should be shown in schools and to parents and as many other places as possible."
-Lauren Rosenberg on Twitter, @laurentheberger
14/ "Moving, resonating, validating and a must watch. My husband, friends and family wept and smiled and recognised." -
Anna Kerr on Twitter, @annaasiam
Unrest on iTunes Reviews
By andreg1110
“I can write a million words to describe the incredibly human, and incredibly thoughtful this documentary is.
Jennifer Brea takes us to the deepest and most personal of places to understand and paint a portrait of the realities of having the disease.
Over 20 million people have ME/CFS around the world, and yet it’s one of the least researched, and least funded of diseases. It’s time for Unrest.”
_
By PopcornSodaPop
“Unrest is a documentary that opened my mind and my heart.
The film is poetic, well-researched, and deeply felt. Creative nonfiction at its finest!”
By Noa Samuel
“Unrest is a groundbreaking film! Haven’t stopped thinking of the film since. Truly remarkable.”
By Timmommack
“A beautiful wake-up call. Jen Brea artfully reveals a hidden horror story, an invisible illness dismissed by medical practitioners that leaves sufferers isolated, immobilize and ignored.”
By MontessoriMom79
“Unrest portrays the struggle of the patient, caregiver, and medical community as she fights daily to return to her formerly full and active life. It evokes empathy and compassion and leaves viewers with an unsettled feeling that should motivte them to want to advocate on behalf of the millions of people suffering with this disease worldwide who have gone missing from their daily lives.”
By Triathamom
“The people featured in this film are honest, brave and strong. Thank you for making this film and sharing these stories.”
By tripster2
“A brilliant film about a vibrant, vital human being fighting for her life, identity, dignity, and a sense of purpose in the face of an undiagnosed debilitating illness. It shows her and many others struggling and peresevering with incredible grace, courage, vulnerability, and love.”
By alltheprettyponies
“This brave movie provides an intimate portrait of the struggles faced by people living with ME/CFS - arguably the most underserved population of chronically ill people around the world. It is moving and unfiltered. This is the first time that the indignity and frustration of this illness has been made visible to the masses. This movie is a call to action. People living with this horrible illness have been ignored for decades. Lives have been wasted. There is hope for treatment, but more funding and recognition is necessary.”
By Sonya_lala
“Unrest is a spellbinding masterpiece of storytelling, art, and social injustice commentary...Unrest evokes profound sadness, crushing frustration, mad fury, and finally hopeful epiphany that through this film and its social justice campaign, moviegoers can change the world -- not just for ME patients, but also for the world.”
By elizabethannb
Not to be missed, trust me on this, go see it. Empowering to those who are sick, illuminating for those who are well. A brilliant, brave piece of filmmaking. Go see it if you’re sick, go see it if you’re well, just go see it!
By emojis
“A deeply personal (and universal) story of love, resilience, and persistence in the face of unimaginable challenges. You’ll watch it more than once and want to share it with everyone you know!”
By Mona-Alisa
“Exposes the millions you never see. A brilliant, brave and deeply honest look inside the tragic losses, disbelief, and triumphs of those living unimaginable suffering.”
By illuminate-ME
By clairbouyant
“For anyone who has been touched by this terrible illness, it is essential viewing.”
Awards:
Unrest world-premiered January in the documentary competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize for editing. It has since screened at SxSW, CPH:DOX, HotDocs, River Run (Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature), the Nashville Film Festival (Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature), among Sheffield Doc/Fest (Illuminate Award). It also has a companion VR piece which premiered at Tribeca and won the Jury Award for best VR at Sheffield/DocFest.
Artists Statement
Unrest is a personal documentary. When I was 28, I became ill after a high fever and, eventually, bedridden. At first, doctors couldn’t diagnose me and later began telling me that either there was nothing wrong with me or that it was in my head. As I began searching for answers, I fell down this rabbit hole and discovered a hidden world of thousands of patients all around the globe, many of whom are homebound or confined to their beds and use the internet to connect with each other and the outside world. We were all grappling with a disease called ME, more commonly known as as chronic fatigue syndrome. This wasn’t a disease I had ever really heard of, read about, or seen films made about, even though it is an extremely common condition. It’s a story that’s been flying under the radar for the last 30 years.
Then I went online and met thousands of people, all over the world, living the same experience. Many were homebound or bedbound, isolated, without treatment or care, and often disbelieved. I thought, “How could this have possibly happened to so many people?” There was this deep social justice issue at the heart of it. An entire community had been ignored by medicine and had missed out on the last 30 years of science. A part of the problem is that many of us are literally too ill to leave our homes and so doctors and the broader public rarely see us. That is when I decided to make a film.
When we began shooting, I was in bed 24/7, so I built a global producing team, hired crews around the world, and directed from my bed. I conducted interviews by Skype and an iPad teleprompter — a sort of poor man’s Interrotron. We had a live feed that (when it worked!) allowed me to see in real time what our DP was shooting on the ground. Filmmaking allowed me to travel again.
Lastly, there was a point at the middle of the edit when we had a very strong cut but I felt unsatisfied with just seeing us, these bodies, from the outside. I knew that there was so much about this experience that an external camera just couldn’t capture. And so we started bringing in these elements of personal narration, visuals, and sound design in an almost novelistic way, to try to give the audience glimpses of our dreams, our memories. It was important to me to convey that regardless of our profound disabilities, we are all still fully human. That even laying in bed, we have these complex, inner lives. It’s my hope that in sharing this world and these people that I have come to profoundly love, that we can build a movement to transform the lives of patients with ME; accelerate the search for a cure; and bring a greater level of compassion, awareness, and empathy to millions upon millions of patients and their loved ones wrestling chronic illness or invisible disabilities
Quotes from JEn Interviews
"Making the film saved my life in a thousand ways. I don't even mean that as metaphor—I mean, it literally saved my life." – Jennifer Brea, No Film School
"I want people to walk away with a sense that life is fragile, life is precious, and we are all temporary, but that when faced with unforeseen obstacles, we all have the potential to find resources within ourselves we didn’t know we had." – Jennifer Brea, Women and Hollywood
"I’m hoping that this film can end the stigma, and also massively grow the scientific field. It’s really through science that we’re going to be able to find out what causes this, and ultimately how to cure this.” – Jennifer Brea, KPCW
"As the film evolved and as my journey evolved, it became about these deeper questions that we all grapple with. For me, it was if I never leave this bed, who can I be in this world, and what value does my life have?" – Jennifer Brea, Park City Television
“I wanted to distinguish this film from the typical disease doc by highlighting the humor, the love story, and the detective story of this woman trying to understand an illness that the medical community has ignored.” – Editor Kim Roberts, Filmmaker
For Design
Inspiration for UNrest page: http://www.stephanieinthewater.com/
Pull quote: http://www.passionplanner.com/